


Making Time

by Jaina (effervescible)



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-26
Updated: 2016-03-26
Packaged: 2018-05-29 03:52:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6357925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/effervescible/pseuds/Jaina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rescue Guy gives Warrior Girl a tour of their home away from home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Making Time

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written in 2008.

It was a weird feeling, Sokka thought, as he picked at his fingernails, knowing that everyone else in the temple knew what you were doing without even being there. That had to be why everyone else had inexplicably disappeared from Sokka's side, maybe to get more adventure details from Dad or New Guy or Zuko, or to get some dinner or whatever. Definitely it had to be why The Duke had stopped peppering Sokka with questions ("How did you get the uniform? Does it come with weapons? Can I try them?") Sokka had dodged him with a comment about needing to clean up after the journey back. He didn't really feel like playing Show and Speak.  
  
They wanted to give him Alone Time with Suki. Sokka knew he could occasionally be slightly oblivious, but this was so obvious it deserved the capital letters.  
  
It was a little silly, especially since he wasn't even with Suki at the moment. Yeah, he was overjoyed to have her here and out of danger and in arms' reach, but that didn't mean he was the kind of creepy guy who'd lurk around outside the door as Suki took a bath in one of the temple springs.  
  
He was lurking at _least_ a hallway away.   
  
He plopped down onto a built-in-stone seat as his tired feet registered their complaints about standing around waiting. Honestly, if it had been up to him, he wouldn't have needed to wait for Suki to get clean before properly welcoming her to the Western Air Temple with a proper smooch. But her eyes had lit up so brightly when Katara mentioned the springs, he didn't have the heart to raise an objection. He and Zuko hadn't explored all of Boiling Rock Prison, but it had still been easy to see that proper bathing facilities weren't one of the offered amenities. He wrinkled his nose at the memory.  
  
The springs here _were_ pretty nice. The water poured into them directly out of small tunnels in the rock. Aang had sent Momo up one of them once to see where they led, but two minutes later the lemur had come flying down the sluice like it was a waterslide, and it had been the work of two hours just to get him to stop using it as a recreation device. Sokka wondered if the setup had been the combined work of earthbenders and waterbenders together. Airbenders couldn't possibly do it on their own, could they? Supposedly only airbenders were allowed in the temples, but Avatars from earlier in the cycle would've been airbenders who could do earth and water too, and they probably had friends in the other groups, so maybe they made a special exception and that was how the temples got built upside down which was really impressive even if it was kind of weird all the same…  
  
"Sokka?"  
  
He swiveled to see Suki standing there and his jaw nearly dropped to the floor. When Katara had worn the Fire Nation dress, as her brother, Sokka had never noticed how much it _clung_ , how it revealed curves and more taut skin than he was used to seeing. As a brother, he should scold her if she ever tried to wear it again, but as a man, he should thank her for loaning the extra outfit to Suki.  
  
"Does it fit okay?" She looked down and slid her hands over her hips. "I'm not really used to wearing Fire Nation clothes, but I think I can fight in it if I need to."  
  
"It fits great!" he blurted, then held back a grimace at how enthusiastic he sounded. It did fit great-really, _really_ great, but no need to sound too eager or anything.  
  
Suki caught his eye and smiled, and he wondered if she knew what he was thinking. "Well come on then, Rescue Guy," she said, and darted forward to grab his hand. "Give me a tour of the place."  
  
"Uh, sure," he said, and picked a random direction to start with. "You shouldn't call me that, though," he said as they walked. "We all pitched in to rescue ourselves. Dad and I just came up with the plan."  
  
"It was a good plan," she said, and hip-checked him gently. "And we wouldn't have been able to pitch in if you hadn't been there to begin with. I guess you really paid me back for helping you guys at the Serpent's Pass."  
  
Sokka shook his head. "It wasn't about that."  
  
Suki's eyes sparkled in a way that clearly said she already knew, so he smiled back and tried to act like a real tour guide.  
  
"Well, you just saw the, um, bathing area," he said, trying not to blush. "We're pretty accommodating around here, but just as a tip, try to get your baths in before Zuko and Aang do. They get kinda stinky from all the firebending practice."  
  
"Got it." She nodded seriously. "Bathe before the benders."  
  
"Right…oh, and here's where Aang says the airbenders did their daily meditations!" He pointed. "It looks right out onto the sunset, so it's really nice…we're a little late for that today, but there's always tomorrow."  
  
"That's a nice thought," Suki said. "Actually looking forward to tomorrow. The days got so monotonous at Boiling Rock, just one after another after another, all the same. I knew I'd get out eventually, but that didn't help much in the meantime."  
  
Sokka slowed his pace until Suki was forced to stop beside him. "I need to apologize for that," he said quietly. "I'm _really_ sorry you had to go through it. It's not right."  
  
"Sokka, it's not your fault." She sounded surprised. "Zuko's crazy sister put me there, not you."  
  
"Because of me!" he said. "Azula wouldn't have even noticed you guys if you weren't our friends."  
  
"Don't be an idiot." She shook her head and punched him lightly in the shoulder. He would've reached up to rub it—it hurt a little bit—if she hadn't taken his other hand in hers. "I know traveling around with the Avatar is a pretty big deal, but don't get a big head. They didn't capture us because we knew you, they captured us because we got in their way, and that has nothing to do with you or Aang. In case you didn't notice, a _lot_ of people were stuck in prison with me, and most of them didn't know you."  
  
He just looked away, but she stubbornly grabbed his chin and forced him to face her. "I knew you'd come," she said. "And you did. And now I'm free. So stop feeling guilty."  
  
"I know you are but…" His shoulders slumped. "It's not that simple."  
  
She sighed. "Come on, dummy," she said, and moved forward, pulling him by the hand. "Let's sit."  
  
This particular corner of the Air Temple had no roof, so when Suki sat them down on the ledge, it almost felt like they were flying through the night sky. Darkness was below and above, eased only by the twinkling of thousands of stars. The beginning of the lunar cycle meant there was no moon shining down on them, and Sokka was thankful for that. Yue would understand that he had to move on with his life, but that didn't mean he should make her watch.  
  
Suki poked him in the ribs to draw his attention back from the sky. " _Look_ at me, Sokka," she said. "I'm okay. You're okay. And we're going to win this war. So there's no reason for you to mope."  
  
"I'm not moping!" he protested, bristling at the accusation. Moping was something people like Zuko did, and he was far too cool to be like Zuko, even if the guy did have a few redeeming qualities. "But I knew Azula had you for months and it took me this long to get you out of there. I can't stand that you lost so much time as a prisoner.  
  
"I'm not exactly thrilled about it myself." She drew her knees up under her and shifted to a more casual position. "But it's not like I was expecting you to come at a certain time. I knew you would sooner or later, but they didn't really keep us informed on current events inside the Boiling Rock, so I had no idea if you'd even heard about our capture yet."  
  
"I did," he said softly. "Right before Ba Sing Se fell." He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, not wanting to remember their loss and his own personal failures there. He was the planning guy, the one with the instincts, and it still burned to know that they hadn't alerted him to Azula's plot until it was too late. "I didn't realize it was Mai and Ty Lee under the makeup when they were pretending to be Kyoshi warriors, but when they didn't recognize your name, the jig was up. But it wasn't until we assaulted the Fire Palace on the day of black sun that I knew for sure you were a prisoner." He dropped his chin into his hands. "I guess I wanted to hope they took your uniforms and left you guys tied to some trees or something, but that's not Azula. Pretty stupid, huh?"  
  
"It might be a little stupid to hope we got _tied to trees without clothes on_ ," she said, rolling her eyes but not looking upset. "But I know what you mean. I thought about you a lot; I figured those harpies were going to impersonate us when they took our clothes, and I just wanted to find a way to warn you, even though I was trapped and didn't know where you were anyway. Now that's stupid."  
  
"No, it's not," he said. "I'm glad you thought of me." Inwardly, he winced at his own choice of words. _I'm glad you thought of me? Not very smooth._  
  
Suki leaned closer to him, resting her head against his shoulder. "I guess you're a memorable guy."  
  
He shifted uncomfortably. His Manly Instincts were telling him that now was the time to put his arm around her and kiss her, but something else was nagging at him. "I have to tell you something."  
  
She lifted her head to look him in the eye. "Go ahead."  
  
"I didn't actually know you were at the Boiling Rock when we went there," he confessed. "I thought my dad might be there because Zuko said it was where war prisoners might be. I swear, it's not that I wasn't thinking about you or didn't want to come rescue you! I just had no idea where you were, and I had a small idea where Dad was, and I was so happy when I saw you in the yard that it was like fate! Or karma! Maybe both!"  
  
She just looked at him with wide, unblinking eyes that looked totally innocent of the shame he'd just confessed. "I know."  
  
"You _know_?" Sokka shut his mouth with a click, then opened it again. "Wait. _How_ do you know?"  
  
"Logic?" She rolled her eyes. "Sokka, the only people who knew where I was were the jailers and Azula. The jailers were on the island, and I don't think Azula would give away her secrets even if you tortured her. I didn't expect you to know where I was. When Zuko brought up waiting to see if your dad was there, I figured you'd followed a lead on him. War prisoners are just higher profile."  
  
"Okay. Yes. That makes sense," he admitted. He scratched the back of his head and looked away.  
  
"Any other big confessions to make?" She sounded amused.  
  
"I don't think so."  
  
"Good." Suki leaned back on her hands and tilted her head back to see the stars directly above them. "So I lost some time in prison. It just means I've got to focus on making up for it. That's not a bad thing."  
  
"How do you want to start?" he asked.  
  
"Well, we've got plenty of battles ahead, and boy, I'm ready. I kept as fit as I could in prison, but it's hard to find a good fight to keep your edge there. Riots don't count. I need to get back in shape, so I'll need a training partner. Interested?"  
  
"I'm up for that."  
  
"That includes taking down Azula and her circus freak friend," she added. "We didn't have enough time on the gondola."  
  
"Only if I can watch," he said. "Azula's pure evil, but that one's just weird. She blew their cover in Ba Sing Se when she hit on me. I was pretty sure none of your real team would try that."  
  
"She _hit_ on you?" Suki stared, mouth set in a firm line. "Oh, I am going to _beat_ her when I see her again."  
  
"What can I say?" he asked breezily. "I'm irresistible."  
  
"I don't know about that." She regarded him sternly before tilting her head to the side and smiling. "But you do grow on a girl."  
  
"Like mold?"  
  
"Very romantic, Sokka." She wrinkled her nose and edged closer. "How about you leave the metaphors to the poets and just kiss me already?"  
  
That was one command he could definitely obey. He folded her in his arms as they kissed, enjoying the feel of her heartbeat almost as much as the feel of her mouth on his. Suki was alive and free, and suddenly the whole future seemed brighter.  
  
"A lot to make up for, huh?" he murmured when they pulled apart.  
  
Suki tucked her head under his jaw and laid another kiss there. "This is a good place to start."


End file.
